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WALL-E (2008)
WALL-E (stylized with an interpunct as WALL•E) is a 2008 American computer-animated romantic science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. It is Pixar's ninth animated feature film. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future. He falls in love with another robot named EVE, who also has a programmed task. The human population, who abandoned Earth for outer space, sent EVE to ascertain if any life still remains on Earth, and WALL-E follows her into outer space on an adventure that changes the destiny of both his kind and humanity. Both robots exhibit an appearance of free will and emotions similar to humans, which develops further as the film progresses. After directing Finding Nemo, Stanton felt Pixar had created believable simulations of underwater physics and was willing to direct a film largely set in space. Most of the characters do not have actual human voices but instead communicate with body language and robotic sounds, designed by Ben Burtt, that resemble voices. In addition, it is the first animated feature by Pixar to have segments featuring live-action characters. Walt Disney Pictures released it in the United States and Canada on June 27, 2008. The film grossed $23.2 million on its opening day, and $63.1 million during its opening weekend in 3,992 theatres, ranking number one at the box office. This ranks as the fifth highest-grossing opening weekend for a Pixar film. Following Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film, Presto, for its theatrical release. WALL-E has been met with overwhelmingly positive reviews among critics, scoring an approval rating of 96% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It grossed $521.3 million worldwide, won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, the final Nebula Award for Best Script, the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film, and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature as well as being nominated for five other Academy Awards at the 81st Academy Awards. WALL-E ranks first in TIME's "Best Movies of the Decade". WALL-E, besides being entertaining, is also seen as a critique on larger societal issues. This film addresses consumerism, nostalgia, environmental problems, waste management, and the immense impact that humans have on the earth. There is also a rather major overarching theme through this movie, which is issues of human nature, and the direction that the human race is headed. WALL-E is seen as a movie that appeals to both conservative and liberal audiences. Plot Throughout the 21st century, Earth was governed by the Buy n Large mega-corporation (BnL), causing mass consumerism and covering the planet in dense loads of trash by 2105. In an attempt to resolve the situation, Earth's population was evacuated on fully automated luxury BnL starliners for five years while an army of trash compactor robots called WALL-Es and large city block-wide sized mobile incinerators were left behind to clean up the planet. The plan largely failed, however, forcing humanity to remain in space indefinitely. Seven hundred years later, in 2805, none of the incinerator units would be active anymore and only one WALL-E unit functions, having survived by salvaging parts for himself from other defunct WALL-E units. This unit has developed sentience and a sense of emotion, particularly curiosity, as shown by his quirky habits of collecting knickknacks from the mountains of trash. He also keeps a pet cockroach called Hal. One day, WALL-E finds a seedling plant growing among the trash and returns it to his home inside an old transport truck. Later, a spaceship lands and deploys an advanced probe robot named EVE. WALL-E is instantly mesmerized by EVE, as she carries out her directive of searching for signs of plant life. Initially aloof and hostile, EVE begins to warm up to WALL-E and takes a liking to him. During a dust storm, WALL-E takes EVE to his truck and shows her the plant, causing her automated systems to store the plant inside her, activate a homing beacon and deactivate her. WALL-E goes to great lengths to try to revive and take care of her, even going on a date with the inactive robot. When her ship returns to collect her, WALL-E desperately clings to the hull of the ship as it returns to the Axiom, the flagship of the BnL fleet. Upon docking, WALL-E follows EVE as she is taken to the bridge of the ship by the MVR-A transport robot. As he progresses through the Axiom, it becomes apparent that, after centuries of living in microgravity and relying on the ship's automated systems, the human passengers have suffered severe bone loss, becoming obese and lazy. The Captain himself does little, leaving control of the ship to the autopilot, Auto. When EVE is brought to the bridge, the Captain learns that by placing her plant sample inside the ship's holo-detector as a sign of Earth being habitable again, the Axiom will enter hyperspace and return to Earth to allow its passengers to repopulate the planet. However, when EVE is opened, the plant is missing. EVE is considered defective and taken to the robot repair ward along with WALL-E by the MVR-A and GO-4, though the Captain's curiosity is piqued and he begins researching Earth history. At the repair ward, WALL-E, seeing a silhouette of EVE through a frosted window, believes that EVE is being harmed when she is, in fact, being pampered by the repair robots. Crashing through the glass and raising an alarm, he causes chaos and accidentally releases a horde of malfunctioning robots to roam the ship. The Stewards then catch them for a while and label WALL-E and EVE as "rogue robots." Annoyed with WALL-E's disruptive influence, EVE attempts to send him back to Earth on an escape pod. However, they see Auto's assistant, GO-4, deposit the missing plant into the escape pod and set it to self-destruct. WALL-E manages to save the plant, and EVE gratefully gives him a "kiss" in the form of an electric spark. The two robots celebrate on a spacewalk around the Axiom before returning the plant to the Captain. The Captain reviews EVE's visual records of the devastated Earth and vows to return there to restore the planet. EVE, meanwhile, sees WALL-E's commitment to her well-being while she was inactive and falls in love with him. However, Auto reveals that he was given a final directive to keep humanity in space, as Earth had been deemed uninhabitable at the time he was given the directive. The Captain argues the plant is proof that life is once again sustainable on Earth, but Auto stages a mutiny, locking the Captain in his quarters, electrocuting WALL-E and sending him down a trash chute with EVE and the plant. With WALL-E severely damaged, EVE realizes the only parts to repair him are on Earth, which they can reach quickly if they can activate the hyperjump. With the help of M-O, the other rogue robots and the human passengers, WALL-E and EVE attempt to place the plant in the holo-detector, but Auto's control of the ship prevents them from doing so, and WALL-E dies. The Captain breaks free of his quarters and deactivates Auto, allowing the holo-detector to activate, sending the ship back to Earth. EVE quickly takes destroyed WALL-E back to his truck and attempts to repair him, but his memory and personality appear to have been erased as he reverts to his original trash-compacting duties. Heartbroken, EVE gives him a farewell "kiss", which causes another spark that inadvertently restores WALL-E to his unique personality, happily reuniting the two robots. WALL-E and EVE rejoin the humans and robots as they begin working together to restore Earth, taking care to plant the seedling that brought them back home. Cast and Characters *Ben Burtt produced the voice of WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth-Class), the title character. WALL-E, a robot who has developed sentience, is the only robot of his type shown to be still functioning on Earth. He is a small mobile compactor box with all-terrain treads, three-fingered shovel hands, binocular eyes, and retractable solar cells for power. He collects spare parts for himself, which becomes pivotal to the plot, and replaces broken and/or worn out parts on-the-fly by cannibalizing "dead" WALL-Es. Although working diligently to fulfil his directive to clean up the garbage (all the while accompanied by his cockroach friend Hal and music playing from his onboard recorder) he is distracted by his curiosity, collecting trinkets of interest. He stores and displays these "treasures" such as a birdcage full of rubber ducks, a Rubik's Cube, Zippo lighters, disposable cups filled with plastic cutlery and a golden trophy at his home where he examines and categorizes his finds while watching video cassettes of musicals via an iPod viewed through a large Fresnel lens. *Burtt is also credited for the voice of M-O (Microbe Obliterator), as well as most of the other robots. M-O is a tiny, obsessive-compulsive maintenance robot with rollers for hands who keeps Axiom clean. When M-O meets WALL-E and sees how filthy he is, he deviates from his normal routine and follows WALL-E, cleaning up behind him. When he follows WALL-E to the garbage bay, he inadvertently but fortuitously saves WALL-E and EVE from being blown into the vacuum of space. He then forms a close friendship with WALL-E and aids the two in retrieving the plant, most notably through using his contaminant detecting vision when WALL-E drops the plant. Back on Earth, he ushers the other robots into giving WALL-E and EVE some privacy as they share a tender moment. *Elissa Knight as EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a sleek robot probe whose directive is to locate vegetation on Earth and verify habitability. She has a glossy white egg-shaped body and blue LED eyes. She moves using antigravity technology and is equipped with scanners, specimen storage, and a plasma cannon in her arm, which she is quick to use. When first deployed on Earth she appears devoid of feeling but as the craft that delivered her blasts off and away she springs to life with gleeful flight. Watching her, WALL-E accidentally draws her attention as she sets about following her directive growing ever more impatient with both her lack of success and with WALL-E's constant monitoring. This shared strength of feeling soon connects the two characters. *Jeff Garlin as Captain B. McCrea, the commander, and apparently only, officer on the Axiom. His duties as captain are boring daily routines, with the ship's autopilot handling all true command functions. Meeting WALL-E, however, sparks his interest in Earth and he becomes engrossed in researching the home planet, paving the way for his retaking control of the ship back from the Autopilot. *Fred Willard as Shelby Forthright, historical CEO of the Buy n Large Corporation, shown only in videos recorded around the time of the Axiom's initial launch. Constantly optimistic, Forthright proposed the evacuation plans, then to clean up and recolonize the planet. However, the corporation gave up after realizing how toxic Earth had become. Forthright is the only live-action character with a speaking role, the first in any Pixar film. *MacInTalk, the text-to-speech program for the Apple Macintosh, was used for the voice of Auto, the rogue autopilot artificial intelligence built into the ship. Unlike other robots in the film, Auto is not influenced by WALL-E, instead of following directive A113, which is to prevent the Axiom and the humans from returning to Earth because of the toxicity, and he will prevent anyone from deviating from it. The robot's design is an homage to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, featuring a HAL-style red "eye" in the center of his body. *John Ratzenberger and Kathy Najimy as John and Mary, respectively. John and Mary both live on the Axiom and are so dependent on their personal video screens and automatic services that they are oblivious to their surroundings, for instance not noticing that the ship features a giant swimming pool. However, they are brought out of their trances after separate encounters with WALL-E, eventually meeting face-to-face for the first time. *Sigourney Weaver as the voice of the Axiom's computer. Stanton joked about the role with Weaver, saying, "You realize you get to be 'Mother' now?", referring to the name of the ship's computer in the film Alien, which also starred Weaver. Video WALL•E Trailer Official Disney Pixar UK Category:WALL-E Category:Films Category:Media Category:Tertiary Media Category:Animated Films